Stream It or Skip It: ‘Catherine the Great’ on HBO, Where Helen Mirren Plays the Russian Empress in a New Miniseries

Helen Mirren has played more queens than you likely remember. She’s portrayed Queen Charlotte, Queen Elizabeth I and II (the latter got her an Oscar), and even voiced The Snow Queen. So it seems natural that she should play another famous queen, this time Russia’s Catherine The Great. Read on about the new miniseries about this famous monarch…

CATHERINE THE GREAT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A boat full of soldiers, rowing a regal-looking woman in a fur hat to a prison in St. Petersburg.

The Gist: Catherine The Great (Helen Mirren) is at the beginning of her reign as Russia’s empress in 1762, having wrested away power from her husband, Peter III, in a military coup. She’s going to the prison to talk to “Prisoner #1”, a mentally ill Ivan VI (Ellis Howard), who was deposed at a young age, and now feels the crown should be his. She recognizes his guard, Lieutenant Mirovich (Lucas Englander) as a person who has more than once come to her for money, and doesn’t trust him one bit.

Back at her castle, she’s about to make a big speech that states her policies. Her foreign minister, Nikita Ivanovich Panin (Rory Kinnear), wants her to take out the more liberal parts of her speech, like where she calls for an end to slavery, but she refuses. Panin has been advising Catherine’s son Paul (Joseph Quinn, who’s resentful of his mother’s role in the death of his father, along with her libertine lifestyle, and it seems that Panin is hooking his future plans to Paul ascending to the throne, which Catherine says will happen… in time.

Meanwhile, the army feels like Catherine owes them her crown, and one of the army’s leaders, Grigory Orlov (Richard Roxburgh) virtually rules alongside Catherine, and they share a bed. He’s being pushed by his brother Alexi (Kevin McNally) to try to seize more power, but Catherine refuses to marry Grigory, keeping him close but not giving him what he wants.

Besides, she has her eye on a young officer, Lieutenant Grigory Potemkin (Jason Clarke). Catherine’s best friend and closest advisor, Countess Praskovya Bruce (Gina McKee), introduces the empress to Potemkin, and even though the Countess and Potemkin also fall into bed together, they both know that he’s fascinated with the ebullient Catherine. She soon starts inviting him to state dinners and other royal events, trusting his forthright take on the issues and threats she’s facing.

Catherine keeps seeing Mirovich skulking around, and wants him watched. Panin hatches a plan that Ivan will be eliminated before anyone springs him; he tells Catherine that people will say the order came from him. But when Mirovich makes an attempt to free Ivan, and then sees Ivan’s throat cut in front of him, he’s told this was on “orders from Empress Catherine.” Panin goes to Catherine and advises her to pardon Mirovich when he’s “on the scaffold”, i.e. about to be executed, in order to buy his silence on who ordered Ivan’s death. But Potemkin advises her to do what she thinks she needs to do.

Our Take: If there seems to be an air of familiarity about Catherine The Great, an HBO/Sky miniseries, it’s because Mirren, EP Charles Pattinson and writer Nigel Williams teamed up in 2005 for the miniseries Elizabeth I, with Mirren playing the titular monarch. Paired with director Philip Martin’s lavish visuals, Catherine The Great seems like it would be a top-notch period piece about one of Russia’s most famous — and notorious — leaders. But something about the first episode felt off, especially when Mirren wasn’t on screen.

Mirren’s presence, as you’d expect, makes you sit up and take notice. In the first episode, she’s playing Catherine as an energetic 30-something at the beginning of her reign. Sure, being in your 30s in the 1760s was basically middle age, but combined with Catherine’s enthusiasm for not being sheltered, Catherine exuded a young energy that Mirren meets with the verve she brings to all her roles (just for perspective: Mirren is 74; Catherine died at the age of 67). When you see her being a hands-on monarch, making her own decisions, and being concerned with people like Mirovich, Mirren convinces you that she’s doing this for her own good, not because she’s micromanaging.

But the rest of the show? It gave us a big shrug. The acting is first-rate, as you’d expect from a production like this. But the unyielding procession of bewigged, tri-corner hatted men vying for Catherine’s attention and favor left us both confused and bored. Without knowing the history behind Catherine’s reign, especially in its early years, it’s hard to distinguish just what everyone’s roles and motivations are.

Yes, the Orlov brothers want power, and they feel they deserve it because they helped overthrow Paul III. They also see Potemkin as a threat to that power, as we see when they beat the snot out of him and push him out a window. But there isn’t enough context to give us an idea that this is anything but macho posturing. We’re not even 100% sure why Catherine like Potemkin so much, beyond how aggressively he hears him having sex with the Countess.

It’s the usual conundrum we see with British-made shows about other European countries’ histories. Do we like the British sensibility that’s grafted onto, in this case, Russian infighting? Or does it seem snooty and officious? In this case, it’s somewhere in between, and it doesn’t distinguish itself by playing it down the middle.

Sex and Skin: Alexi walks in on his brother Grigory having sex with a consort, and just stands there with an “are you quite finished?” look on his face. We also see Potemkin’s skillful intercourse with the Countess, one session of which Catherine hears from outside the Countess’ chambers.

Parting Shot: Catherine breaks up with Orlov right before a cross-dressing ball. Potemkin shows up with the Countess, reluctantly going because he’s just been beaten by the Orlovs. Catherine promises him revenge, even if he doesn’t say who did it. She says, “Let’s celebrate new beginnings! Play me something Russian!” and she pulls Potemkin in to dance with her.

Sleeper Star: To be honest, we want to know less about Potemkin and the other men and more about Countess Bruce, played by Gina McKee. She’s the only one who can talk to Catherine like a friend and call her on her BS. And, she has no problem sleeping with Potemkin even though he has his eyes on the empress.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Sometimes I yawn. Dinner with you can be a bit…. fucking… dull!” Grigory Orlov says to Catherine after a dinner where she catches him yawning at the same time that Potemkin is being charming.

Our Call: STREAM IT, but only because Helen Mirren is her usual force of nature in Catherine The Great. But the rest of the first episode really left us cold.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, FastCompany.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Catherine The Great on HBO GO and HBO NOW